This invention relates generally to coupon dispensing apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for automatically dispensing coupons into containers being carried on an adjacent conveyor.
It is well known in the marketing field to include discount coupons or other promotional literature in packages of consumer products such as eggs. In the past, a serious disadvantage of this method of promotion has been the difficulty and cost of making an insertion into each container during packaging. It has been found that manual insertion of the coupons into the containers on a volume basis is entirely too costly. While attempts have been made to automate this process with apparatus designed to insert coupons into open containers passing by on a conveyor during packaging, this apparatus has proven to be unreliable in that it does not consistently insert a single coupon into each container and is subject to frequent breakdown. Furthermore, these previous automatic coupon dispensing devices have the disadvantage that they are not readily adaptable to dispense coupons having different characteristics such as thickness and flexibility.